The EF sponsorship deal was announced over 12 months ago so its unlikely any investigations would of taken place at that point. It ran 2012-2014.

HMRC have no powers to intervene in day to day operations, only avenue open is via Courts, which is what they have done.

Fairy snuff...

just seems a little flawed to me - EF ploughing (loose term) moey into wakefield when they owe £21,000,000 to the tax man.

I wouldn't be happy at this at all

Any business spending money that it cant afford is in the same boat then - or is it just cos it affects us?

No I'm not saying its just Eric France in the world who've done that.

But given the fragility of most rugby league clubs (especially given Wakefield's history over the last 5 years) it does seem irresponsible.

It's frustrating to see you guys clearly turning a corner, then having more obstacles put in front of you

But thats life and to be fair to Wakey- it is absolutely out of our hands.
What we do to remedy the situation is another matter and we should be taking every opportunity to make a negative into a possitive - which is (i am led to believe) the situation.
As for Wakefields situation over the last five years that could read many other SL clubs situation Castlefords included who have huge debt tied to an individual, who given a bad year might want it back.
You only have to look at the high street to know this is a very unstable world and anyone linked to it s(uch as yourselves) could suffer at any time without any notice.
So like i said it COULD be anyone next, and as long as we are doing all that we can to make the sponsorship issue a better deal for the club then we are in far healthier state than we have been in the last five or even maybe ten years.

yeah it's a good point you make, as always KC!

hopefully though in this "unstable world" people will see value from sponsoring WTW, or any rugby league team for that matter.

It'd be foolish to assume a great deal would be on the way, as any deal frankly would be better than the current situation.

Our position is precarious for totally different reasons. We are pretty much held to ransom by an individual who, though I firmly believe he has always had Castleford in his best interests, wll not leave without getting his money back and some

The bit you are missing, and I need to word this carefully at this stage until more is known, is that HMRC probably didn't know that EF owed them £21m in VAT until they turned up, probably unannounced and maybe with a court order in hand, to take a very detailed look into EF finances!!! I am sure I don't have to be any more obvious than this do I?

Equally, I suspect this won't stop here and I am sure this story will run for some time yet!

Suffice to say that HMRC (and Wakefield Trinity) had know way of knowing that EF would end up owing the VAT man £21m until they went looking recently.

I;m no expert, just seemed a little suspect that's all, in my untrained eye

Is is very suspect Dave... and HMRC is not the suspect... if you get me!

like I said before pal, it's commendable for EF to sponsor Wakefield from 2006 until yesterday... However the 'powers that be' in that firm must have realised upon penning agreements this year, that the company was on its last legs?

As i say, I'm no expert, but the signs of this happening must have been there for months - the £21m owed hasn't just popped up like a dandelion through a crack

I reckon it's impossible to get the money that wakefield are owed from a company that no longer exists (clarification once again required) ....I hope Trin can find some replacement of some sort, I would imagine the loss of a six figure sum would have some ramifications on coming seasons?

Not if it replaced with another deal. Wakey are not owed a six figure sum. The whole yearly deal was worth a six figure sum paid for in installments, the last two or three of which i believe haven't been met. The rest would have been due monthly. If replaced quickly with a new deal (and talks have happened) the losses will be no more than around 30K. An improved deal with a range of new sponsors (which seeing as the EF deal wasn't actually that good value overall is more than possible) could cut that shortfall long term to zero.

good

I have sent you a PM in which I can be more open and explains what I am getting at!

The firm probably wasn't on it's last legs until the VAT man turned up and pointed out to the company that they owed a little more in VAT than they had paid so far!

I'm on the level, cheers mate